Climate Disruption: Earth's Forests Calling -- S.O.S

Earth's forests are breathtaking. In fact, trees are effectively the greatest CO2 warehouses to have everevolved on Earth. For every metric ton of wood created, 1.5 metric tons of CO2 is absorbed and 1 metric ton of oxygen is released.

Frighteningly, Earth's forests are dying from a warming world. Will the delegates from 194 countries attending the Doha climate talks acknowledge this and what nature is unequivocally showing atmospheric, biologic and oceanic scientists?

Last week researchers once again sent an S.O.S distress call to denizens of Earth -- drought conditions are placing deadly water-stress on forests around the globe. Moreover, Earth's forests and myriad 'ecosystem services' that they provide all life -- are approaching an irreversible tipping point.

In 2009 the International Union of Forest Research Organizations came to a very bleak conclusion: "The carbon storing capacity of Earth's forests could be lost entirely if the planet heats up 4.5°F above pre-industrial levels." So far, we have increased by about 2°F, which means we are already well on our way toward this fateful threshold. The result of crossing it would be an uninhabitable world.

Rising greenhouse gases are also wreaking unimaginable havoc in the tropical forests, more specifically in the Ferrari of jungles -- The Amazon. The heart of the Amazon has not evolved to contend with winds, never mind fierce winds, nor with drought. In 2005 a vicious combination of climate disruption occurred across a 733,600 square miles of land. In January an intense thunderstorm, spanning 62 by 124 miles, ripped through the whole Amazon Basin from southeast to northwest. On its path, the storm leveled between 441 million and 663 million trees - or the equivalent of 23 percent of the estimated mean annual carbon accumulation capacity of the Amazon forest.

Earth's forests are its life-support system. Around the globe they are clearly showing telltale signs of run-away carbon emissions and the effects of rising temperatures, prolonged droughts and massive insect infestations.